


May the Scribes Have Mercy

by blackredpanda



Category: Pyre (Video Game)
Genre: Flash Fic, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Minor Spoilers, Missing Scene, POV Second Person, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 11:57:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21197288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackredpanda/pseuds/blackredpanda
Summary: "It shall be done if we prevail. But only if."The Reader's overconfidence has a heavy price.(Whumptober 2019prompt 24: Secret Injury)





	May the Scribes Have Mercy

A hush has fallen over the blackwagon. Most of your companions have returned to their quarters; your loss to the Withdrawn this night has drained them in both spirit and body. Worse, your attempt to weaken Udmildhe through the Rite seems to have backfired. However, though the common room is unlit, you sense Bertrude coiled up in a corner, hunched over her cards. She does not stir at your approach, but she speaks before you can.

"Thou couldst not have foreseen this outcome, Reading-One. Before this cursed night, thou hadst not even glimpsed such sorceries as we thought to work. 'Twas we who counselled thee to invoke the star of – the Astral-Born."

That hitch in her voice is not like her. You have to know if she will be all right.

Despite your question and your continued presence, she does not look up from poring over her arcana. You do not know what she hopes to find. "...The Plan will not be hindered on our account. Concern thyself no further with this matter, nnnggrhh."

This seems as much of an answer as you will get.

Yslach must be dead. The Lone Minstrel has told you of how Molten Milithe bound him in the loathsome Pit that bears her name, and of how the Scribes crafted and inked the Books with his very hide and ichor. Surely, the impossibly black star in the sky is a mere shadow of his horror, and if the Nightwings are the assembled image of the Scribes, as Volfred intended, that shadow should have been no match for you. You should have triumphed over Udmildhe and her false god.

Yet you were overcome, whether through that malign influence, your own lack of skill, or simple bad luck; and while Bertrude's will is as solid to your senses as ever, you perceive, all around its uttermost edges, a hunger gnawing...

**Author's Note:**

> Bertrude's rivalry with Udmildhe is one of the few with permanent penalties if you fail, but unlike many of the other rivalries, it doesn't seem to have a wagon scene afterwards. Maybe it was too depressing.


End file.
